Question- are they gone?
Backstory
Friday 14:30 - swarm arrives and starts settling on the roof
Friday 15:00 - flying swarm seem depleted, but are still clustered on the roof. Look like they’re going in between the gaps of the tiles
Saturday 10:00 - Bee removal man comes to look. Several bees in the loft, but not a full colony. He says they must be building comb between the tiles and the membrane. He says we’ll need to pay around £600 for scaffolding and him £300 for removal and roof repair. I contacted him through the BBKUK and was hoping for a lower cost to be honest.
Saturday 12:00 - pan of soaked citronella cotton wool balls in the loft. Citronella snake smoking on top of a ladder into the loft hatch. Bees still coming and going from the roof tiles at this time. My idea was to discouraging them from settling before they establish.
Saturday 20:00 - observed around 15 bees dead on the windowsill of the roof where the loft hatch is 😭
Sunday 08:00 - the loft is absolutely silent. No buzzing at all. No bees coming or going from the roof outside.
The beekeeper man says we’ll need any comb that they managed to build to be removed.
Is there any chance the bees have just moved on? We will really struggle to shell out a thousand pounds right now.